Cobb Stadium

Agree, Wayne. I'm a '60 grad and all of the Stockard football games were at Dal-Hi Stadium. (Remember Herman Neckar??) I believe the Sunset games were played there as well, until Sprague Field was opened about 1958-59.
There are many old threads on this board that discuss Dal-Hi/Cobb.
Fred

I remember thinking I'd freeze to death at Cobb Stadium. Also -- and this is what my husband always tells our kids about Cobb -- it was the stadium that had french fries but not ketchup. So everyone ate them with mustard.

Scattershooting while wondering: What Happens to Unsung Heroes?
Dave Mc,
I can remember the game you describe so well. Adamson was picked to place in the cellar that year, but instead had a very good season. We had a good coaching staff including first-year head coach Jim Batchelor, Line Coach George Brownlee, and Backfield Coach Roland Hallmark.
The senior starters I can remember include Ends Buddy Brister, Felix Ortega, Lynn Gorman, and Gary Ragan; Tackles Sonny Moody and Bobby White; Guards Mike Martin and Robert Ramirez; Centers Larry Farmer and Bill Brown; Fullbacks Stanley Puckett and Gerald Turner; and my good friend, Hallback Jesse Vasquez.
There were some up-and-coming Adamson underclassmen that played well that day including Quarterbacks Dickey Young and Walter King; Halfbacks Mike Pittman, Ray Don Matthews, Sonny Glasco, and Richard Morgan; Tackles Jerry Moody and Bobby Reid; Guard Jay Bauman; and Center Larry Clinton.
I can't remember now if Buddy Gregory was the kicker then, I don't think he was, but he later did well at UT-Arlington; and even &quot;had a cup of coffee&quot; in the NFL.
There was also a strong bench that got a lot of playing time that game, including Russel Cozart, Jackie Mullenix, and my favorite neighborhood homeboy, my unsung hero, Tommy Earp.
If you had been at Adamson back then, you would probably be saying &quot;Tommy who?&quot;
When I was growing up, Kimball's Gary Davis and Adamson's Mike Martin were the best athletes (in my same year of school) that lived within a block or two of my immediate neighborhood of Trinity Heights in Oak Cliff. As we grew up, they each quickly became a problem for me as I competed unsuccessfully with them for positions on the football teams, starting with Boude Storey. Failing miserably to excel, and reading the signs on the wall, I quickly turned to other pursuits; but my good friend Tommy Earp stayed with it. He was never a star player. A perennial backup, he never seemed to even get on the field when the outcome of the game was still in doubt. But, he gave the game everything he had; and I think it was in those awful muddy, rainy, nasty, ugly games that he excelled. Normally a sweet, kind kid, the worse the weather turned, the more he became an ogre. I've seen him giving it everything he had with blood flowing from his nostrils, mud caked all over him, and his uniform all dissheveled. Other people never seemed to pay as much attention to his effort, perhaps because it was in games when players' numbers were illegible that he got more playing time. When everyone else was heading home, I would be yelling encouragement for Tommy. I wonder what ever happened to him. The last time I saw him he had just bought a new 1961 Corvair and was in college at Texas Tech. I hope he did well. He was my unsung hero.
Adam

maybe i was always meant to be a sculptor because of all the things i loved most about good ol' cobb stadium was the wonderful old relief sculpture that rimmed the outside of the stadium.
it was of football players from the 20s or 30s with their little leather helmets and uniforms that looked so old timey and cool.
it had all the wonderful old poses that you saw the boys in the annual pictures doing.
it was sad day when the tore down cobb.
debby

For me Cobb Stadium was the ultimate stadium.
Afterall in the early 60's THE Junior High championships were played there. It wasn't anything like Franklin Field or Forrester. Never thought it would come down. I remember driving pass later in the 70's and it was abandoned and neglected?
Did DISD trade the land or sell it to Trammell Crow? It was a great location and should have been very valuable.

That line of concrete sculpture that was at Cobb is inside the InfoMart. They saved it when the stadium was torn down and mounted it outside meeting rooms there. The last time I was there--several years ago now--it was still there.

That's why I said the &quot;Jesse Owens Complex,&quot; the Kincaide Stadium is part of the overall Owens Complex. Every part of it has a separate name--even the press box. BTW John Kincaide is a former DISD Athletic Director--the first African-American to hold the post.

It was sold for, if I remember correctly, $3million. Then it turned out that DISD didn't own the ground--it had never been transferred from the Water Dept like the school property when the DISD became &quot;independent&quot; from the City of Dallas in 1948. The money had to be split 50-50 with the city as a result.

I do indeed remember Cobb stadium. I spent many evenings at the fieldhouse watching high school basketball during the early to mid 60's. My Dad was the basketball coach at North Dallas High during that time and my Mom and I were there rootin' for the Bulldogs. I also spent alot of time at the Sprague fieldhouse after it was built. Great memories!!

Me too Bob! It was Dal-Hi back in our day in the mid to late 50's! Now the &quot;Delta Queen&quot; sits there. That's what I call Trammell Crow's Info Mart, id that is what it is still called.
Best,
Steve

That's who Howard Allen always talked about, but I believe the stadium was named for the family as a whole. Remember how Mr. Allen always talked about &quot;Mother Sprague?&quot; I don't think Johnny's name got specifically attached.

Oh yes, I well remember Mr. Allen after the Pep Rally &quot;Sit-in&quot; when we refused to go to class and finally, after we went, he was in tears as he berated us for sullying the memory of Johnny Sprague! Helen Horn and many of the other instructors often reeferred to him as well. Do you recall the &quot;sit-in&quot;? We were ahead of our time as it was the 60's before the college kids began that practice! I think we may have been mad because they had banned the favorite band number of &quot;Caldonia&quot; due to some &quot;changes&quot; in the lyrics we made.
Steve

Okay, you Adamson guys, I remember reading this on a previous thread that was posted before I started monitoring the Board; and I want a chance to put my spin on it.
I remember the &quot;sit-in&quot; at Adamson, and my memory is that it was band inspired, but I think the tradition of sitting-in like that goes way back to 1957 at Boude Storey junior high, when the principal, Mr. Durrett(?), hit drummer Jay Carl Coleman over the head when the band wouldn't stop playing during a pep rally when classes were supposed to start.
Does any of this ring a bell with Boude Storey people?

The following, from the obituary of Dr. Charles Sprague, may be relevant.
Dave
&quot;Posted By: Bill Crane
Date: Monday, 19 September 2005, at 7:40 p.m.
&quot;COPIED FROM THE SMU SPORTS BOARD ON WHICH IT WAS COPIED FROM THE SOURCE...
&quot;Dr. Sprague was born in Dallas and graduated from Oak Cliff High School, now W.H. Adamson High School. The youngest of eight children, he was from a family of athletes. Sprague Stadium in Dallas is named for his family. His father, George Sprague, was mayor of Dallas from 1937 to 1939. &quot;

Remember it well. I was glad I was in the band and didn't have to make a decision on whether to sit or stand! I think it was over Caldonia, those in the band loved to play it, but Arvo Goddard, the band director didn't like it since that's all the student body wanted us to play at games.